Melissa Ferrick polishes off the nog at Club Passim on Tuesday, 26 December 2023.

Meg Toohey plays in support on the eve of the eve of the eve of the eve of the eve of the eve of New Year.

Club Passim, straight outta Cambridge!

It’s basement digs, but it’s a warm & cozy basement, with poster bills of Campfires from year’s past papering the wall.

The floorplan is dominated by tables. Sometimes you can reserve them. Sometimes they’re general admission. Sometimes they’re both. Kind of like the setup at City Winery Boston.

Shout out to the servers snaking through the narrow alley between tables. Looks like there are good tips to be had, serving food and beverage, but you have to work for it. You have to play the game of ferreting out who among the mass of seated patrons in a darkened room wants and/or needs a new drink or another appetizer. All the while the artist is performing on stage, trying to pretend they don’t notice a patron settling a bill in the middle of their set.

Club Passim is a jewel of a venue. Its special combination of live music performance space, along with a school of music, gives its shows a unique air. A little more erudite than a coffee shop stage, but just as free wheeling and easy going.

Meg Toohey

If you only go to singer-songwriter folkie shows, you didn’t bat an eye at the amount of just plain talking there is at these sets. At a local rock gig in the back of the Sil, you might get a sentence or two between songs. Maybe even a fully-formed paragraph if the band has a new single coming out. Otherwise it’s just pedal to the metal.

The house appreciated the backstories and buildup though. Which started with the house manager pimping the venue for pass-the-bucket donations. Club Passim is a non-profit venture, made possible by your support. This was an audience that knows what to do when the pledge drive starts.

The music started with Chelmsford’s finest Meg Toohey, a singer-songwriter who traded between electric and acoustic for a set of emotionally-charged pickers. She’s got a local sense of humor and scored a laugh with a song she described as about her childhood home, titled “I Buried Myself In the Backyard.”

What else did we learn? She’s part of The Waitress production. You know, the Broadway musical that got turned into a film. Toohey played a role in both. 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. Hey now! And she leaves on tour soon to support Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard on some undead American Idol musical adventure.

Melissa Ferrick

So the introduction went: professor, mentor, musician, board member at Club Passim. Did we miss anything? Probably. You wear a lot of hats in this life, but it seems like Melissa Ferrick has worn more than many.

Over a dozen albums, regular tours, and stages shared with all types, Big Names included.

At Club Passim Melissa Ferrick is a Big Name. Turning out a pretty great draw on the night after Christmas. A two-show run, in fact, on the 26th and 27th. Not typically a prime spot for shows. People are worn out from Christmas and trying to save their money and energy for one last blowout on New Year’s Eve.

As it was, though, a healthy crowd turned up, a real Ferrick booster club who came to hear them run through the gamut of acoustic guitar styles. The core is Americana, but Ferrick takes off into exotic territory as far as their picking allows. Which is pretty damn far.

The rapid fire, machine gun strumming on “Relief” was a standout. No lullaby picker, this one. Plenty of charge between their fingertips and the strings. The crowd was feeling the energy, maybe to the point of being a little loopy.

Everyone seemed like they were in a post-holiday tailspin. But Ferrick righted the plane with that expert live performer’s skill and took the house in for a smooth landing with the help of Toohey playing slide guitar in support.

Nice to have a board member who can bang out a solid set or two when the situation demands.

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